The Arizona biotech community stepped into the spotlight at the 2013 Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Awards.
The winners of the 2013 Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Awards were announced Thursday night, shining a light on how the state’s innovations in science and technology create a sustainable state economy.
The 10th annual gala and awards ceremony, held at the Phoenix Convention Center, was presented by the Arizona Technology Council, the Arizona Commerce Authority and Avnet Inc.
“It’s an honor to congratulate this year’s winners and to celebrate their ongoing corporate excellence,” Sandra Watson, Arizona Commerce Authority’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “More than ever, companies are expanding to Arizona because of our concentration of high-tech talent and portfolio of successful technology companies. The hard work of these individuals, and the companies they represent, continues to position our state as a leader in technology and innovation.”
Bioscience in the spotlight:
- Innovator of the Year – Start-Up Company: Yolia Health, of Phoenix, a biomedical device company recognized for its True Vision Treatment, a non-invasive and fully-reversible procedure for treating presbyopia and low-refractive vision problems like myopia.
The “Future Innovators” and “Teacher of the Year” award winners:
Teacher of the Year Award Winner:
- Michael McKelvy, from Basha High School in Chandler
Teacher of the Year Award Honorable Mentions:
- Christopher Brandt, from Saguaro High School in Scottsdale
- Andrew Lettes, from Pueblo Magnet High School in Tucson
Future Innovators of the Year Award Winners:
- Manav Sevak and Tejas Dharmaraj, from Chandler High School, for their team project, “Indicting Alzheimer’s: Novel Methods of Preventing Glial Scarring.”
- Anvita Gupta and Sejal Aggarwal, from Basis High School in Scottsdale, for their team project, “Pancreatic Adenocaarcinoma.”
- Eric Epstein, from Tucson High Magnet School, for his project, “Olfactory discrimination between regular and deuterated compounds in European honeybees.”
- Shelby Yuan, from University High School in Tucson for her project, “Preparation of Magnetic Nanovesicles for Biomedical Applications.”
Future Innovators of the Year Award Honorable Mentions:
- Kelsey Barter, from University High School, for her project, “Targeting Survivin as a Potential Cancer Therapeutic.”
- Soumya Kambhampati and Thomas Liu, from McClintock High School in Tempe, for their team project, “Social Network Analysis of SAT Phase Transition.”
Technology Community award winners:
- Innovator of the Year – Small Company: Strongwatch Corporation, of Tucson, which focuses on the tactical mobile surveillance and continuous autonomous surveillance segments of the video surveillance market.
- Innovator of the Year – Large Company: Lumension, of Scottsdale, recognized for its Endpoint Management and Security Suite ─ a comprehensive platform that takes a proactive approach to endpoint security.
- Innovator of the Year – Academia: McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where students learn and experience the entrepreneurial process from start to finish.
Individual award winners:
- OneNeck IT Services People’s Choice Lifetime Achievement Award: Insight Enterprises co-founders Eric Crown and Tim Crown
- William F. McWhortor Community Service Leader of the Year: the Thomas R. Brown Foundations
- Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year: Clark Peterson, Telesphere CEO